A normal Saturday?

Had a fun trip back to Norway from Germany last night (read ”not”). Landed at Oslo airport at 9 PM, took the shuttle to the long term parking, -22 degrees Celsius outside (-6 Fahrenheit). Ok, car was started, and running (yeahh). The car park people said they had to let it run since it didn’t start, no wonder, it was now -25 Celsius/-13 Fahrenheit and the car had been sitting there for 3 weeks. Flat battery. Ok, I was up and running, car was charging….. Starting to drive home, then the coolant light came on, shit, there must be a small leak, since this also happened last time, no problem, just to stop at a gas station and add a coolant that is rated for this cold weather. Done, stopped at gas station, cannot open the hood, the cold has made something with the snap hinges. Finally, after freezing my fingers off, I got it open, added liquid (still with the engine running, charging the battery hopefully). Driving home. Hitting a cold spot, -31 degrees Celsius/-24 Fahrenheit close to Lillestrøm. COLD….. Hear crackling sound in the car. The car body is frozen stiff, and the small bumps in the road make it crack.

Get home at the house at 10:30 PM. WOW, lots of snow in the drive way. Hmm, snow blower has a broken part….. Need to call on the neighbor to park the car in their driveway. Done, she want to get out at 9:30, so if I can have the card moved by then. Fine. No problem. Wade through snow up to my thighs into the house. 12 degrees Celsius/53 Fahrenheit inside. Not too bad. Have been a power shortage while we were gone. All heating that is split into several heating zones had been automatically reset to the above mentioned temperature. Good. Expected it colder. Have to re-program the central control unit, takes 30 minutes. Done going to bed. ….Waking up, fixing broken part on snow blower, taking 1 hour to get the drive way and steps cleared of snow. Still in good time to get the car moved… it’s now 8:10. Yes, early riser….. Tried to start the car, flat battery ¤%#¤%#¤##”¤#”. Called a friend, asked for a jumper start, he arrived 10 minutes later, car started OK. Need to go buy new battery. Drives to the battery store, leaves the car running (battery is flat/not charging. They are sold out of batteries……. More people than silly me have battery problems in this cold. OK. New solution, across the street is a boat supply store. They have batteries for boats.. Going there, buying a 70Ah one, get it to the car, it’s too big, returning it for a smaller 60Ah one. Drives home, broken lamp sign comes on the dashboard…Checked, it’s the halogen headlamp. Drives home. Still not eaten breakfast, can’t stop and buy groceries until the battery is fixed (can’t stop the car). Taking the old battery out, putting in the new, attaching the cables. Whoops. What happened, the – and + are mirrored from the old battery? Typical, it is a trick to keep the car batteries and the marine batteries separated. i.e to create an artificial segmentation. Have to drive back and return the battery, then drive another 35 minutes to find a correct car battery that will fit the Volvo (not all does). Get a new battery, and a new halogen headlamp, freezing my fingers off changing the headlamp. Finally done, can change the battery and drive to the grocery store and buy some food and eat breakfast. How was your day? Ha ha